AZRAEL: Silent Yet Furious

By August Tales

Post-apocalyptic tales often focus on alien invasions or environmental collapse. Rarely does one revolve around the biblical Apocalypse. But ‘Azrael’ is that rare gem. An action thriller revolving around life after The Rapture, despite stirring up more questions than it answers.

In the post-Rapture world shown in ‘Azrael’, speech is now sinful. This odd choice results in an unusual stillness across society. Civilians have their vocal chords severed, and they communicate largely via signs and gestures.

Survival in Silence

In this eerily quiet apocalypse, a brutal reality still looms. Azrael, played by Samara Weaving, and Kenan, portrayed by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, are lovers captured by possibly fanatical scavengers. Azrael is set for sacrifice to a horrifying entity but manages to escape. Yet, her pursuit to find Kenan never lacks pursuers.

While it lacks elaborate dialogues, ‘Azrael’ is no silent film as such. It is brimming with thrilling action sequences and nail-biting horror. The plot is a guessing game of sorts, where the hunters and the hierarchy become clear-cut over time. Meanwhile, the features of this post-apocalyptic world are vividly brought alive, displaying some genuinely horrifying monsters.

Unanswered Questions

Despite the riveting visuals, there’s much left fuzzy about the narrative. Are Azrael and Kenan former members of the community they now escape from? Are they heretics of some type? Or is Azrael destined for a dire fate? The pregnant woman leading the tormentors – who is she?

Director E.L. Katz and writer Simon Barrett leave these details dangling. Our understanding stems mainly from visual evidence, and even then, answers remain unclear. However, the movie’s textures and the survivalist aesthetic hint at a near-future setting but tell little about the world outside this forecast. Frustratingly, cryptic clues are all that we get in the debut watch.

Samara Weaving – A Silent Powerhouse

Despite its murky narrative, ‘Azrael’ strikes gold with Samara Weaving’s performance. The Australian actress doesn’t need words to engage viewers. Through expressions, grunts, and a well of determination, Weaving conveys more about her character than the movie’s environment.

The narrative fumbles aside, Weaving’s glorious performance makes the film thoroughly enjoyable. Her survival against monstrous adversaries is endlessly riveting, ensuring you remain hooked throughout the 85-minute runtime.

Although an innovative premise, ‘Azrael’ gets tangled in its own vagueness. Despite its superior fright tactics and imaginative action scenes, the storyline falls short in clarity. Much like the protagonist, the movie thrives when action unfolds but flounders in effectively communicating its central thesis.

‘Azrael’ is currently screening in theaters.